Best way to pass SQL TEXT field via a link

I'm trying to update an existing record based on a link that represents the record to update. I have a link and I am passing variables that were assigned from a SQL database to another php form page which will be used to update the record. I'm passing variable like so:<a href='addupdate.php?name=$name&category=$category&description=$etc..... This works fine for variables that contain values of only a few lines but what about passing a couple paragraphs stored in variable $description assigned via database value as TEXT. Would it be better just to pass the database record ID to the destination page and then query the record in the destination form page and populate the form with the current values and update the record or is there another way I don't know about?